Old stellar populations in NGC 5128

We have resolved the stars in the halo and in the diffuse northeastern shell of the nearest giant elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 using VLT with FORS1 and ISAAC. Dominating feature in the optical-near IR color-magnitude diagrams is abroad red giant branch, indicating a large spread in metallicity of the stars. We have detected a significant number of sources brighter than the tip of the red giant branch. The variability monitoring of these bright red giants shows that they are long period variables similar to Miras. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.